A. Trends in Healthcare.
Traditional healthcare services have been concerned primarily with the treatment of disease. However, it is becoming increasingly recognized by medical professionals that while the treatment of disease will always be an important component of healthcare, the focus of healthcare should shift to the monitoring and maintenance of a person's health prior to and during the onset of a disease. It is believed that healthcare expenses can be reduced, and quality of life can be increased by: (1) monitoring health conditions prior to the onset of a disease, so that the disease can be treated earlier; and (2) convincing people to change their lifestyles in ways that reduce the likelihood of disease occurring.
Several medical conditions exist where the monitoring of levels of particular analytes in a person's blood stream are important. For example, the level of analytes such as cholesterol, glucose, and lactate are important parameters to monitor to gain an understanding of the person's over-all health condition, and to provide vehicles for early intervention, when appropriate, to help treat disease conditions early after their onset.
B. Glucose Monitoring and Diabetes.
In the year 2000, 3.2 million people died from diabetes. A key to treating diabetes is maintaining appropriate glucose levels in the patient. Tight glucose control in a form of self-monitoring the blood glucose (SMBG) is considered to be the standard of care for diabetes management and treatment.
C. Atherosclerosis and Cholesterol Levels.
Coronary Artery Disease (“CAD”) caused by atherosclerosis is the leading cause of death in the Western world, and is predicted to be the leading cause of death in the developing world before 2025. In the U.S., over 50 million people are candidates for drug and/or dietary treatment to modify the profiles of their lipids, such as their “good” and “bad” cholesterol. However, such treatments are enhanced if cholesterol levels are monitored.
D. Sports Medicine and Blood Lactate Levels.
A growing interest has developed in recent years in measuring blood lactate levels, since blood lactate serves as a marker of anaerobic glucose metabolism in over-trained muscles. Lactate levels are now routinely monitored by most professional and many serious amateur runners, bicyclists, and swimmers, along with people participating in many fitness and wellness programs.
E. Products Available for Monitoring Glucose Levels.
A wide variety of products exist currently, that are useable by the consumer to monitor glucose levels. Currently products are available from Roche Diagnostics (ACCU-CHEK® products); Bayer® (ASCENSIA-brand products); Therasense® (Free-Style® brand products); and Lifescan® (ONE-TOUCH® brand products).
Typically, these products consist of stand-alone meters that are used in connection with a blood test strip. To operate these meters, one employs a lancet device that punctures a tiny hole in a high-blood flow body part, such as a finger tip. A drop of blood is harvested from the hole, and placed onto a test strip. On the test strip, the cellular components (e.g. red and white blood cells) of the blood are separated from the plasma component. The plasma component may be reacted with one or more reagents that are embedded on this strip, to cause the reagents to undergo a chemical reaction, and form a reaction product. With many strips, the reaction product is colored. The color can be correlated to the level of glucose in the sample. The test strip is then “read” by the meter, usually by reflectance photometry.
F. Products Available for Monitoring Cholesterol Levels.
Several home devices also exist for measuring blood cholesterol levels. Some of these devices are operated similarly to the blood glucose level testing devices described above. Examples of these include the Cardio Chek® and Cardio Chek® professional devices, and the Life Stream®, Three Minute Cholesterol Monitor.
An alternative test methodology is illustrated with the CholesTrac home cholesterol test. The CholesTrac test is a manual system that does not employ an electronic meter. Rather, the person using CholesTrac device visually compares the “color” of the reacted test analyte with a colorant-containing result chart to determine the cholesterol level.
G. Products Available for Monitoring Lactate Levels.
Lactate measuring devices also exist that are similar to the blood glucose and cholesterol meter devices described above. Examples of these include the ACCU-TREND® Lactate and ACCUR-SPORT® portable analyzer, along with the Lactate Probe brand portable lactate analyzer. The devices operate similarly to the glucose and cholesterol meters, as a drop of blood is placed on a reagent containing test strip, which is then inserted into a meter.
H. Blood Testing Devices Invented by the Applicants and their Colleagues.
The Applicants, along with their colleagues have invented several devices that can be used in blood testing. These devices include the capillary test strip to separate particulates shown in Hans G. Kloepfer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,696,240 (24 Feb. 2004); the Consolidated Body Fluid Testing Device and Method shown in Hans G. Kloepfer et al., U.S. Patent No. 2003/0109777 (12 Jun. 2003); and Hans G. Kloepfer et al., Method and Apparatus for Analyzing an Analysis Fluid, U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2006/0034728, published 16 Feb. 2006. See also Mary G. Kloepfer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,764 (28 Nov. 1989).
The Kloepfer et al., '240 patent relates to a capillary strip that is used to separate particulates from whole blood. The Kloepfer device performs the separation of particulate matter from plasma by employing a gradient of capillary force to move the cell and plasma containing blood sample from a sampling portion wherein the blood is deposited on the strip, to a reagent containing testing site. After the blood has reached the reagent containing test site, the cellular components are removed, with only the reacting plasma remaining.
The Kloepfer et al., '777 publication discloses a device that includes all of the disposable blood testing components required to perform a blood test incorporated into a single, easy-to-manufacture unitary component that can be manufactured inexpensively enough to make single use and disposal economically viable. The Kloepfer consolidated testing device includes a unitary body that carries a disinfectant containing swab, a calibratable and moveable lancet, a blood-flow enhancement device, and a test strip.
The Kloepfer '292 application discloses a meter for use in connection with the consolidated body fluid testing device (test wand) disclosed in the '777 Kloepfer Publication. In addition to disclosing an inventive meter, the Kloepfer '728 Publication also discloses improvements in the test wand that facilitate its use with the meter.
Many of the improvements the Applicants and their colleagues have made to test strips and test wands make them more useful for performing blood tests from very small blood samples. Additionally, a transparent test strip is used with the testing wand to permit the meter to detect blood through transmittance photometry or reflectance photometry, rather than being limited to the reflectance photometric methods used with current meters.
The meter disclosed in the Kloepfer et al., '728 Publication has many features in common with other meters, as it includes the common components of: (1) a receptacle for receiving a test strip; (2) a photometry system, including a light source and receiver for performing a photometric analysis of a reagent-reacted blood samples to quantitatively determine the amount of a particular analyte of interest; (3) a processor within the meter to process the results obtained by the photometric analysis to arrive at a quantitative value for the analyte of interest; and (4) a display for displaying the test results to the user.
In summary, the three above-described Kloepfer references disclose an improved test strip and metering system that is believed by the Applicants to be more convenient to use than known systems, and that is capable of being used with smaller samples than known devices. Nonetheless, room for improvement still exists.
For example, improvements can be made to the meter. Currently, most meters employed for measuring blood analytes are single analyte meters that are useful only for performing the particular test for which they are designed. Current meters could be improved by providing a single meter that is capable of performing a test simultaneously on a variety of analytes. A particularly welcome improvement would be to provide a test strip and metering system that was capable of performing these tests from a single blood sample.
One short coming of current meters is that since the single analyte meters are “stand alone” meters, they require their own processing circuitry and/or software to perform many of their functions. Therefore, an improvement to this current situation would be to provide a meter that is capable of utilizing the processing capability of a device, such as a mobile phone, that most potential users already possess, and that contains the processing capability for performing many of the processing tasks currently performed by the meter, to thereby enable the user to reduce the number of devices that he must carry with him. Additionally, adding the meter components to the mobile device should be less expensive than the cost of manufacturing two separate devices.
Another area for potential improvement is to provide the meters with the ability to communicate results to others, to a health provider, or to the user's own computer for later retrieval and storage.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved blood testing system, that incorporates one or several of the improvements discussed above.